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Expert Q&A
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| By Mindy Hudon Speech and Language Pathologist | ||
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My 4-year-old has trouble with words beginning with "S." Is this normal?
A kindergarten screen is a quick check of you child's skills. I do not think it was a full speech and language evaluation. They are suggesting that she attend speech therapy in the fall based on a brief screen. Your child should receive a full speech and language evaluation to effectively determine her needs. By law, the school system must provide one for you and this should be completed before she even starts treatment. You also have the option to use your medical insurance (if appropriate) and get an outside evaluation at a clinic. Either way, your daughter first needs an evaluation to determine what sounds she is having errors with and how stimulable she is to correcting them. An evaluation will also rule out any physical difficulty she could be having in the movement and strength of her tongue and lips to actually produce these sounds.
Here are some ideas to help her with her "S" sound (I like to call it the "snake" sound). Children can relate to animal sounds and maybe better able to model it and have fun with it. First, start with having her say the sound by itself. If she is able to do this than you can practice silly words that begin with the snake sound like "so, say, see, sue, sigh." These are consonant and vowel productions which is the easiest for her to say in the beginning. If she is able to do this, then go to consonant-vowel-consonant words like "soap, sip, sap, soak, seat." Play with her when working on these sounds. If you make it boring and like a drill she will probably avoid practicing.
You also should call the school therapist and ask her for specific ideas. She maybe able to provide you with worksheets, etc.
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